(upbeat music) - Pastor John, yesterday we talked about living in hope when life seems aimless, and specifically when a job is hard or it's just difficult to get excited about. We're gonna talk about work more today because jobs for many are scarce, and many people just take the jobs that they can get.

And a long-time listener to the podcast, Joshua in Vancouver, asks this, "Pastor John, can a believer ever be called to a lifelong career for which they do not enjoy?" Pastor John, what would you say to Joshua? - It's not an easy question to answer the way it's formulated. The main reason is that there is another question, which I think needs to be answered first.

Namely, would God ever call a person to a lifelong vocation in which He does not enable the person to have joy? Would He call you to a work you can't enjoy? That's one question. Is there a work He calls you to that He won't enable you to enjoy? The way the question is posed seems to assume that some tasks that God, God, might call a person to simply cannot be enjoyed.

God doesn't have the capacity or the will to give the person He just called into that the joy to do it. And my question is, is that true? Is there anything in the Bible that would incline us to believe that if God, God, the good, loving, Christ-sending God, calls us to something, He would give us the grace to find it rewarding and to find joy in it?

Is that not the way the Bible reads? So here's the way I would go about answering it. Joshua is right to assume that God cares about whether we do what we do with joy. Psalm 100, "Serve the Lord with gladness." That's clear. God does not like begrudging, joyless service.

And in one sense, all of our lives, including our vocations, are service to God. Paul says, Romans 12, eight, "Let the one who does acts of mercy do so cheerfully." And he says in 2 Corinthians 9, seven, "God loves a cheerful giver." And all of our work should be giving.

All of our work should be merciful. And he says in 1 Thessalonians 5, 18, "That we should give thanks in every circumstance." And he ups the ante in Ephesians 5, 20, "Give thanks for everything." Amazing. And then Ecclesiastes 9, 10, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might." And chapter three, verse 22, Ecclesiastes, "There's nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work." So for all those reasons, I would say that Joshua is on the right track here for believing that God wants us to find joy in the work of our hands, in our vocational labors.

But I think the implication in the Bible is not mainly that we should refuse to work until we find the work that we think we can enjoy, but that we should take the work that we can for the good of the family, the good of the community, the glory of God, and then pray our way into the enjoyment of it and shape it in whatever way we can so that it becomes more fruitful and more enjoyable.

I say that because, for example, in the early church, many slaves were converted to Christianity in the first century in the Roman Empire. And it's clear from the way 1 Peter 2, 18 to 25 talks about these slaves is that for them, it was often terrible. They were mistreated, and Peter was helping them to know what to do about that.

It was not an enjoyable vocation by and large. To be sure, in 1 Corinthians 7, 21, Paul says that if a slave can obtain his freedom, he should do so, which shows that Paul did not consider it ideal that we labor in a role that's miserable. Nevertheless, the main counsel that Paul and Peter gave to slaves and to the rest of us in 1 Corinthians 7, 24 is this.

So brothers, in whatever condition each was called, let him there remain with God. And the key words are with God. In other words, whatever work we have, the greatest joy about the job is that we get to be there with God, he's come to us, he's with us every day.

Whatever we're doing, he's there, he'll help us, he'll turn it for our good. One last observation. Those of us in the prosperous West should keep in mind that one of the most surprising features of our culture, which visitors from the two-thirds world are amazed at when they come, is the stunning number of choices we have.

Choices in hundreds of kinds of cereals and fruits and vegetables and cars and houses and theaters and every manner of appliance and device. And we tend to take all these choices for granted. Most places in the world, people do not have 100 possibilities in front of them for how to make a living.

They may have one or two or three options, given their village and the family they're in and the society they're in, and therefore the question that was asked represents a very Western question. And so I return to my original reconstruction of the question, which I think applies globally. Would God ever call a person to a lifelong work in which he does not enable the person to have joy?

And I think the answer to that is this. God intends to give his people joy and thankfulness and a sense of usefulness, whatever he calls them to. Paul knew how to be content in every circumstance. This is the essence of the Christian life, finding contentment in Christ and turning every circumstance in all of our work into living worship.

Yeah, such a helpful perspective, Pastor John, thank you. We must get that question right. Thank you, Joshua, for prompting this discussion in the first place. And Monday we're gonna talk about spiritual leadership in the home. What does it look like for a husband to lead his wife and family well?

And as we break for the weekend, be sure to check out our podcast homepage to search our archive of questions or to send us a concise question of your own. Go to desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with John Piper and have a great weekend and we'll see you back here on Monday.

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